10 Times Wrestlers Secretly Went Undercover In Other Companies
1. CM Punk's Shocking Return To WWE - Sort Of (WWE Raw, April 2023)
Indeed, CM Punk's actions from the 24 April 2023 WWE Raw remain one of the year's most outlandishly bizarre news reports.
Punk hadn't been associated, officially, with Vince McMahon's empire since he dramatically walked out on the company following the 2014 Royal Rumble. Punk was considered retired from the ring following this and vowed never to return to WWE. He did, of course, become a recurring panellist on WWE Backstage, but this was a contract with FOX, not the McMahon family directly.
His appearance on this Raw, though, was in direct contact with the family.
Tamina, Bobby Lashley, and The Miz were amongst the names Punk was spotted chatting to before Vince McMahon pulled the plug. A brief chat with Paul 'Triple H' Levesque, whom Punk had/has longstanding issues with, was his last port of call before McMahon ruined the festivities.
Disbelief was the consensus emotion felt in both WWE and AEW. Although there were initial reports that a CM Punk WWE return was a possibility following his apparent exit from AEW last September, it wasn't truly going to come to fruition. He's heralded as too much of a liability for WWE to risk bringing him back and Punk himself wouldn't want to work the gruelling WWE schedule, nor would he be granted the right to be his current anti-hero AEW self.
This was it for CM Punk-WWE "relationship" - and what a final chapter it was.